Portrait of Adult Artist - Patricia James: examples of adult artistic development and interdisciplinary learning

Portrait of Adult Artist - Patricia James: examples of adult artistic development and interdisciplinary learning

​To investigate creative work in practice in a real classroom, we construct a portrait of a student named Carol (pseudonym) who participates in two assignments: a photomontage and a masked performance. It uses a narrative approach to explain and interpret Carol's learning. It reveals the complexities and nuances of materials, information and their interaction with the environment. Most of the 28 classmates did meaningful work, but we chose Carol for this case study. This is because her clear reflections track many aspects of her thinking and her work shows significant change between the beginning and end of the semester. She actually crossed the "limited boundaries". Including Carol's reflective writing and artwork allows readers to interpret and evaluate her thoughts for themselves. a student on an assignment

As described by ohn-Steiner (1997) in his study of creative individuals, although students do not work at groundbreaking levels or for sustained periods of time, students are capable of meaningful and creative work at their level of expertise. It is about going beyond the limits you define for yourself. My teaching and research are based on an interactionist approach to creative work that conceptualizes creativity as a dynamic and systematic relationship among people, processes, products, and environments (Gruber, 1989; Isakson, Puccio, & Treffinger, 1993; Woodman & Schoenfeldt, 1990). Creative work has many dimensions. Creativity is a developmental and purposeful evolutionary process, but it is also a non-linear process shaped by accidents, mistakes and chance occurrences. People who perform creative tasks utilize the environment, methods, and ways of making task choices to support their work needs, but also interact with cultural knowledge and others (Gruber, 1989).

The activities in our classes are designed to allow students to practice creativity on many levels. Individually and in small groups, students engage in metaphorical and creative thinking using a variety of expressive modalities including visual, auditory and kinesthetic. The semester begins with a photomontage assignment, moves into creativity exercises incorporating masks, expressive writing, poetry, movement and music, and ends with a project where students create a live multimedia mask performance. Initial assignments have teacher-imposed constraints, but by the end of the semester, students should apply their own structure to their work. Throughout the school year, students express and understand their creative process by engaging in reflective discussion and writing reflective writing (Moon, 1999). To design lessons that help students understand the complex nature of creative work, I conducted ongoing reflective research (Clandinin, & Connelly, 1994; Cochran- Smith & Lytle, 1993). Creativity (James, 1999-2000), and changes in photomontage tasks over a period of time. James, 2000) and the social dynamics of a class (James, 2002-03). My primary data sources for the research portion described in this article are copies of Carol's reflective writings, photographs of her art work, videotapes of her performances, and . your own notes. I applied Gruber's (1989) theory of creativity to identify five dimensions in Carol's work.

Do multimedia art work that is meaningful to you and to others. Use a mask to make your face and/or body a metaphor for how you view the world or something that relates to you. Masks can take many forms, including facial. or body coverings, hats or screens. You must also use some combination of movements, images, words or music. To prepare for the final performance, students used their creativity. Practice mini performances including expressive movement, spoken word, and small groups. These activities are designed to give students practice.

Synthesizing different resources and concepts was done through metaphor. A metaphor is a powerful way of making connections between two dissimilar entities in which similarities are discovered and understood in a new way (Pugh, Hicks & Davis, 1997).

Bamberger and Schön (1983) use the metaphor of “conversational learning” to describe this interaction between artist and material.

. Carol's interactions with others have made her think about her own abilities from a new perspective and come to the realization that her own work can have an impact on others. When curating her performances, she paid attention to how others would interpret and respond to her work. An important factor in Carol's creative work was her desire to impress her colleagues and make a difference in their thinking. Carol began to think of school as a place to learn with and from others, rather than simply competing for grades.

  By reflecting on her own creative process, her Carol developed her awareness of her own thoughts and feelings, and this information helped her understand what she was doing and further shape her work. It helped. Her reflections occurred through her writings, both reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action (Schön, 1987). Reflection-in-action helped her Carol quickly assess her mistakes and urgent information by matching her expectations and mental images of her own work.

Her repeated practice through open thinking, structured practice, her exposure to a variety of art practices, and a supportive social environment encourage her to develop new resources and challenge herself to trust in her own abilities. I did.

(1) She used both her purpose and her opportunity. (2) She has built her own way of generating and solving her artistic problems. (3) She bridged conceptual, physical, social, cultural, and personal resources. (4) She interacted with her physical and social environment. (5) She reflected on her own creative process and what her own work meant to her. Carol's experience is specific to her personality and specific learning situation, but similar patterns of creative thinking apply to many kinds of students and classrooms. Knowing established artistic concepts and techniques is certainly a valuable ingredient for effective artistic expression, but an understanding of the creative process is also essential for success. With this knowledge, students can learn to deal with metaphor, opportunity, ambiguity, multiple sources of knowledge, emergent information, conscious planning and reflection. In this way, students can get used to open-ended exploration from working within self-imposed boundaries. See Bamberger, J., & Schön, D. A. (1983).

By Olivia